The present invention relates to electrical equipment cluster mounts, and more particularly, to a wing-type cluster mount that is constructed to provide interlocking and interengaging components that provide enhance strength to weight ratio structural support for heavy electrical equipment devices such as transformers, so as to mount same on a utility pole or the like.
While in the past a single transformer was mounted to a utility pole, the current practice is to mount a series of transformers upon an aluminum electrical cluster mount such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,374,978; 3,653,622; 3,856,250 and 4,296,904.
Prior to the development of the aluminum electrical equipment cluster mounts, heavy, press-molded metal plates of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,879,694, or a pair of channel members braced by elongated angle members shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,990,151, were used. However, it was discovered that interlocking lightweight aluminum components could be constructed as an electrical equipment cluster mount because, where the lighter weight aluminum sacrificed strength, when assembled in an interlocking structure, they could easily compensate for the lighter weight aluminum and provide added strength to the overall electrical equipment cluster mount construction. As a result, various interlocking aluminum component constructions were developed in several different electrical equipment mounts, as shown by the patents identified in the previous paragraph.
As will be appreciated, where interlocking lightweight aluminum structures have been employed, the flexibility and versatility of such units has sometimes been lacking. For example, it has not always been possible to mount electrical equipment on a different combination of spacings, or to mount such equipment either in a circumferential array around the utility pole or all on one side of the utility pole, as may be required by certain states. Where such flexibility and versatility has been available, the strength of the units have, in some cases, been unnecessarily sacrificed.